Brazilian designer and illustrator, Daniel Vincent Gomes, has won Abelha Organic Cachaça’s international competition to design a limited edition label for its Silver Cachaça!  Daniel’s design will go onto an initial run of 600 bottles of Abelha Organic Cachaça – Silver which will be available from August.

The label will be officially unveiled at a celebration at Barrio Shoreditch on Tuesday 28th June where Daniel’s artwork and bottle, along with the works of another nine international artists who also entered the competition, will be exhibited.

 

Speaking about the competition, Daniel who is 26 and lives in Sao Paulo said: “I thought the Abelha competition was the perfect project for me.  I’m a huge fan of cachaça and I love the Bahia state where Abelha is created.  The climate, lifestyle, it’s vibrancy and colours are like nothing else you’ve experienced before.  It’s like a state of mind.”

 

Inspired by the area where Abelha is made, Daniel also took inspiration musically.  He said: “I define my work as musical and I seem to connect melodies to my creations.  This time, I sat at my desk and listened to Dorival Caymmi, one of Bahia and Brazil’s most inspired composers and musicians and began to draw.  As soon as the music flowed – so did my inspiration.”

 

The winning artwork was chosen by a panel of judges which included Brazilian urban artist Ananda Nahu, commissioned to design the 2015 Limited Edition Summer Label; Lívia Rezende, professor of History of Design at the Royal College of Art; Jonathan Chadwick, Illustrator, Designer and the artist responsible for creating Abelha’s label.

 

Joao Pinteiro, director of Abelha Organic Cachaça, said: “Daniel’s wonderfully playful label encapsulated the Bahian spirit of Abelha and although standards were high it was a clear winner across our panel.  We look forward to exhibiting Daniel’s design, together with another nine entrants and celebrating in Barrio with a caipirinha!  We also warmly thank all artists who took part in this great experiment.”

 

Cachaça, Brazil’s most popular drink, is woven into the history of the nation, having bolstered the colonial economy and provoked the first rebellion against the Portuguese. Although cachaça was first made before rum, it was only early this century when it gained international (excluding the USA) legal status and declared officially as Brazilian.

 

After Brazil was ‘discovered’ by Cabral around 1500, many Portuguese returned with sugar cane shoots in the early 16th century, needing to expand sugar production in Madeira. Regions like São Vicente, Pernambuco, and Recôncavo Baiano were soon transformed into vast plantations.  As colonies were established along the coast, cachaça began to be produced; most likely using stills that were brought from Madeira where a kind of aguardiente (fire water) was already being made. Much more poetically, cachaça was discovered by serendipity when fresh sugarcane juice reserved for drinking or for livestock fermented naturally and evaporated to condense into droplets; these then fell on the slaves who discovered that it was not only delicious but also intoxicating. Pinga (meaning drip), also known as cachaça (!), was born.

 

Nowadays, cachaça has become an integral part of Brazilian culture, as synonymous with the country as bossa nova, carnival, or football. It is produced and enjoyed all over Brazil and is enjoying an exciting renaissance; trendy cachaçarias have sprung up in Brazil’s major cities and, more recently, in many cities of around the world.

 

 

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Rum Databank:  Abelha Organic Cachaça

Country of Origin: Brazil

Cost: £21-£25

Available From: Online at Master of Malt and other special spirits retailers. The Silver is available in store at Marks & Spencer.

Website: http://www.abelha.co.uk/

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